"Are those my parents?" I was barely able to hold myself together. The scene before me was me, a lot younger, eating dinner together with my family. Even though I couldn't see it, I could sense its presence. For a moment, I was crazy enough to go up to them and say hi, but I immediately realized that will be impossible. Because when I looked at myself, I was as transparent as a ghost.

"You do not cease to belong in this world."

"No...this can't be real...it can't be!"

"Of course they're not. But feel free to talk."

"I think I was about 5 or 6 that time...seems several lifetimes ago..."

"..."

"We were still in China that time, as I recall..."

"...Very good. You are beginning to piece things together, shall we take a look at the next scene?" the scene shifted again.

"This is the church my family and I went to when we were in America."

"..."

"I was never a big fan of church, much less Christianity."

"Perhaps we should speed things up a little." The scene shifted again. One look at the place and all the memories began flooding back.

"How do...never mind. Just take me out of here."

"No, you will stay and watch." In the scene there was a different church and people going into it. And that also includes my parents and...me. I watched as the miniature me, swing happily between my parents' arms as we went inside the church together...

"No..." I commented, it said nothing.

"NO! Don't go!" I surged forward and planted myself in front of them. But they simply walked right past me without looking.

"There is nothing you can..." it spoke up.

"SHUT UP! I KNOW!" I found myself screaming my head off. But nothing changed, like I expected.

"Very well. If you have seen enough let's jump to the next scene."

"..."

Before I even had the time to complain the scene shifted again. This time the scene was inside the church. And in this is the part they will...

"They performed the ritual...My parents were too superstitious."

"...Hue."

"Then they brought me into the cult too, though they didn't do anything to me yet..."

"Hue, hue."

"At first everything seemed pretty normal...about a month later things started to go wrong, starting from the...charms." I said the scene shifted. The scene shifted to door of our apartment. But what was odd about it is the dead mouse hanging from it.

"...Carry on."

"The tenet kicked us out of the apartment after doing that several times," I gestured towards the mouse. "So we moved to poorer neighborhood. But that still didn't stop my parents from worshiping the cult."

"...What happened next?"

"Strange wounds began to appear all over my parents' bodies and they refused any sort of medicine for it." the scene shifted as it showed my parents coming home with all sorts of scars and cuts on their arms, and many other places I don't see.

"...Then?"

"My mom was pregnant with babies as some form of ritual...she then gave birth and those babies were...were...eaten." The scene shifted into a hallway and people were dinning on babies.

"Hue, hue. This is too good. I am sorry."

"Then, then I...I...iiiii..."

"Take it easy...Take it real easy..."

"NO! I can't, I can't!"

"You are with me; all your secrets are safe with me..."

"...Yes, it was a dark, dark room...The priest...he told me to remove my clothes..." the scene shifted. It showed me in a dark with a middle age man; he was a lot stronger than I was at that time.

"And did you?" it was a rhetorical question but I answered it anyways.

"I was reluctant, I refused...so he beat me..." the violence erupted in my head, and the memory was painful literally.

"Then?"

"What is done cannot be undone...much later the authorities found me..."

"HUE, HUE, HUE." I could almost grasp the image of the voice snickering at me.

"My parents were taken, and if I ever see them again..." a certain emotion surged through my body.

"Do you hate them?"

"I..." my fist began to thob.

"Do you hate them for what they did to you?"

"Ye...yes. But it's not their fault..."

"Then whose fault is it?"

"Its...its...ITS ALL YOUR FAULT!" I burst out all of a sudden, and I was quite surprised myself for saying that.

"You are precisely right, it was all your fault."

"No! Its...it's because..."

"You are weak."

"...I." I was unable to find any voice to defend myself.

"You are weak, so you are unable to change anything. But if you were powerful, you could do whatever you wanted to."

"No...you are trying to get inside my head." I snapped.

"I am inside your head I have been the whole time."

"NO! you aren't real, you aren't real..." I closed my eyes, yet I could still see everything.

"Yes this is happening. This is all happening because you are weak."

"No..."

"There is no denial in weakness. But I can offer you power."

"...I don't associate with your kind."

"There is no denial in power."

"Just leave me alone!"

"Is dying without finding your desire acceptable?"

"...No..."

"Desire...you know it."

"..."

"It's no good if you hold back."

"...!"

"In order to achieve desire you will need power."

"..."

"You know what to do...if you don't your, desires, your life, they will all be gone. Forever."

Then everything exploded into light, next thing I knew was that I was back in the arena. I was face to face with the demon, and I knew exactly what to do.

***

The demon was studying which part of me tasted best, but I gave it no further thought. I moved in on the demon at inhuman speed and jabbed with my sword, and surprisingly it did not resist. And without hesitation I began carving at the area where the demon heart is, don't ask me how I knew, but I just know it somehow...

As I began carving the demon didn't even flinch, except for the occasionally heart quenching death cry. I cut a hole big enough to fit a hand in, then I sunk my finger around it and literally ripped that piece of flesh off. Then I pulled out its heart. It looked like an overcooked maggot infested cow heart. But I knew what it is, and what it can do...it told me.

Power...Survive...All in one bite...Well here goes nothing...

I took a big hearty bite out of it.

Q: What was your greatest trauma?